SESSION 11 - MEDITATION WITH QUEST .......... 31 - By Lester Levenson
セッション11 - 探究を備えた瞑想..........31 - 最終自由の鍵 (究極の自由への鍵)
SESSION 11
MEDITATION WITH QUEST
The prime purpose of meditation is to quiet the mind.
When we hold one thought with interest, as we hold it,
other thoughts keep dropping away. Thoughts of the
day,-what he did to me, what she did, what I should
have done, etc., all these thoughts are active on a
subconscious level. As we hold to one thought, these
subconscious thoughts quiet; they become still. They
drop into the background, and that quiets the mind.
Now, the most important thing in quieting the mind is
interest. When you are very interested in something,
you'll override all other thoughts. Likewise, if, with
intense interest, you want to know: What am I? What is
this world? What is my relationship to it? If there's a real
burning desire to get the answer, then all other thoughts
drop away and the mind becomes extremely
concentrated. Then the answer shows itself. It comes
from within. The answer is there all the time. The
quieting of the thoughts allows us to see it, to see the
answer that was there all the time, there in the realm of
Knowingness, the Self.
The starting point should be a strong desire for the
answer. When that desire is strong we get the answer.
That's why man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
Extreme adversity causes in us a desire to get out of it
with such intensity that we concentrate our mind and
discover the answer.
When I started my quest I thought “thinking” would give
me the answers. I had a mind that was as active as any
mind could be. But I was at the end of the line. I had had
a second heart attack and they told me I was finished,
that I had only a short time to live, and so I had to have
the answers. And even though my mind was far more
active than the great majority of minds, the intensity of
the desire for the answers caused me to hold to one
question at a time, obliterating all else. This
concentration did it!
I started seeking with no knowledge of metaphysics, no
knowledge of the way. In fact 1 was anti all religion and
all metaphysics; I thought it was nonsense, for the weakminded, for people who believed in fairy tales.
But it was only because of the intensity of the desire to
get the answers, I had to have the answers, that they
began to come, and they came relatively quickly. Over a
period of three month’s time I went from an extreme
materialist to the opposite extreme: the material is
nothingness and the spiritual is the All.
The wish to get the answer was so strong, that in spite
of my mind being one of the noisiest of minds, the
answers began to come. I automatically fell into things (I
knew no words for them) like samadhi. I would
concentrate on a question with such intensity that I
would lose awareness of the world, lose awareness of
this body, and then I would be aware of just a pure
thought, the thought itself would be the only thing
existing in this universe. That's absorption when the
thinker and the thought become one. One loses
consciousness of everything but that one thought. That's
a very concentrated state of mind and the answer is
always discovered right there.
I started with “What is happiness? What is life? What do
I want? How do I get happiness?” I discovered that
happiness depended upon my capacity to love. At first I
thought it was in being loved. I reviewed my life and saw
that I was very much loved
by my family and friends and yet I was not happy. I saw
that was not it. Continuing, I realized that it was my
capacity to love that gave me happiness.
The next question was “What is intelligence?” I persisted
until Ah! I saw it! There is only one intelligence in the
universe and we all have a direct line to it.
Then I worked on responsibility and discovered that I
was responsible for everything that happens or
happened to me. Creation was something I created!
Finally, I held the question “What am I?” until the answer
presented itself.
And this went on and in a matter of three month’s time I
believe I saw the entire picture, went all the way, only
because of the concentrated approach. I knew nothing
about the subject; I knew nothing about the direction, the
way, the path, but I wanted to know: “What am I? What
is this world? What's my relationship to it?”
You discover that the whole world is nothing but you,
that there never was anything but you all along, because
there's only One and you are It! But that isn't the final
state. You come out of it and there's still a certain
amount of mind left. So you go back into the meditative
quest until there is no more mind controlling you. When
you've eliminated all the habits of thought, all the
tendencies of mind, you are free; then you can use your
mind and you are the master and director of it. It no
longer determines you, you determine it.
At present we are over 90% of the time controlled by the
unconscious mind.
Q: That's the conscious and unconscious mind both?
Lester: Well, the conscious mind is easily controlled.
The subconscious is not because it is not easily seen.
It's a mechanism we set up of not looking at our
thoughts. of making them operate automatically. We did
it to our entire body; it's all automatic now. And then we
did it to all thoughts but the thought we're interested in at
the moment.
Q: Why is it that we did it to all thoughts except the one
we're interested in at the moment?
Lester: Because we don't want the thoughts in the first
place. so we push them away to the background. We
are happiest when there are no thoughts. Sometimes,
when you work with your hands, you’re very happy,
right? Why? The thoughts are quiet.
Q: Then your mind is quieted at that time, or is it operating on the subconscious level?
Lester: Well, consciously and even subconsciously it's
quieter. We really don’t want thoughts. Thoughts are the
things that make us unhappy; even the happy thoughts
make us unhappy because while we are enjoying
something, we're concerned about the possibility of
maintaining this pleasure which we know is not going to
last. The thought of the pleasure at the same time
evokes the thought that it's not going to last. Even
thoughts of happiness are limited. The really happy state
is the no-thought state; it's the state of Knowingness and
is beyond thought.
We started with the subject of meditation. Meditation
does seem to be a question in many people's minds
who have meditated for years and years. The best type
- 31 -
of meditation is with question. When you just drop into a
nice quiet state without question, you get a good feeling
but no progress of getting the Knowledge.
Q: There isn't any progress when you're just quiet?
Lester: There is in that you're moving toward the quiet
state. And the quiet state is a better state than the noisy
state. In that sense it's a step forward. But the only
problem we have now is called ignorance. We're
ignorant of the fact that we are infinite. To get rid of
ignorance we need the Knowledge of our infinity. To get
the Knowledge we have to enquire. So when we go into
meditation and just get peacefully quiet, that's good, -but
don't stop there, then get the answers. It's necessary to
get quiet to get the answers. Only the answer to “What
am I?” gets us to the top. That is easy to see, isn't it? So
if we want to take the -quickest way, we start with the
question that we finally have to answer: “What am I?”
I want to relate this to meditation. For more rapid growth
meditation should be with question. Here's where the
jnanis get the advantage over the bhaktas. Surrender
and devotion throw us into nice feelings and they're
good: But a jnani goes further; he says, “All right, don't
stop there, get the answer.” It's only when we fully know
who and what we are that we're at the end of the road.
So the fastest and best way to meditate is to pose a
question, get quiet and stay quiet until the answer shows
itself. Then go to the next one until all the answers are
there.
Q: If we find we aren't making much progress, could we
pose the question “What's holding me up?”
Lester: Sure, you should. It's a good one.
Q: You know I think you had it easier because you didn't
have a lot of preconceived ideas.
Lester: You're right. I was very lucky that I knew nothing
because intellectual knowledge about the subject is an
obstacle. The ego substitutes the intellectual knowledge
for the real experiencing of it. I was very, very fortunate
not to have had any knowledge of it.
Q: You also didn't realize that it's as difficult as most
people think it is.
Lester: Yes. However, knowing what you're telling me
helps one let go of that obstacle of intellectual
knowledge. I prod you in this direction, don It I? I say:
“Don't believe anything. Start from scratch. Build up your
knowledge on the solid foundation of proof, step by
step.” Everyone must do this.
Q: You can't take someone else's experience?
Lester: Right, you would be working on hearsay, on
what they have said, and the only useful thing is that
which you experience. I relate it to driving a car. If I say I
know how to drive a car after reading a book that directs
you to turn the key on, start the motor, shift into drive
and step on the gas, do I know how to drive a car? No,
not until I experience it can I drive a car. It's the same
thing on the path; we must experience everything.
We must, of course, adopt the attitude that what the
Great Ones say is so, that they have experienced it.
However, you must check it out and prove it for yourself.
And the basic Truth is that there’s only one Reality;
there's only one absolute Truth, and that is that this
whole world or universe is nothing but God, but better
than that, is nothing but my very own Self. God could be
far away; He could be miles and miles away in cosmic
space, but my very own Self is right here, is something I
know about, is something I can perceive, it is my very
own Self! So, using Self as God is far more practical
than putting Him out there, putting Him apart from us.
But each one must start from the bottom and prove this
whole thing for himself. As the proofs come, the more
they come the more we accept until we experience the
whole thing.
You still want to hear more on meditation?
Group: Yes.
Lester: Every aid should be a means of quieting the
mind. If meditation is difficult we can prepare the way by
chanting. Chanting puts our minds on the meaning of
the chant itself and the thoughts of the day drop away
and that quiets the mind. Exercising the body, doing
certain asanas, etc., do the same thing. Anything that
helps is good whatever it is. The basic thing is to quiet
the mind. Being loving and good makes the mind
quieter.
The mind is the only thing that keeps us from seeing our
Infinity. The mind is nothing but a collection of thoughts
of limitation. And in meditation we try to quiet that mind
so we can see this infinite Being that we are.
Meditation should never be passive. We should never
try to force the mind to go blank. Meditation should
always be with question for the best results.
The more we practice meditation the easier it is to do.
To get the real deep insights requires a momentum.
When meditation gets to be more enjoyable than things
of the world, then we go at it with enthusiasm and desire
for it. And then we just can't wait until we get back to it.
When we get that momentum going, the mind gets
quieter and quieter until this infinite Self is self obvious
and just glares at us and we laugh. Now maybe with all
this talk on meditation, we ought to try it, O. K.?
Q: Just one question, does concentrating on your hands
help to get your mind quiet? It seems to me.
Lester: If it helps, it's good.
Q: It's not harmful then?
Lester: Oh no. There are several centers one may
concentrate on. A good place is up here, between the
eyebrows. Concentrating here takes your mind off other
parts of the body. It is the center for the third eye, the
astral eye, the spiritual eye. It pulls us away from the
lower centers of the body when we come up here. Some
prefer the heart center. But anything that helps, helps!
Q: I used to concentrate between the eyes but now
when I do enquiry, I let the “I” sink down to the heart.
Lester: The heart is a good place because it is the center of feeling, and feeling is closer to the Self than
thought. It depends on your background. If you're a
vichara jnani, it'll be the heart, but not on the left side, on
the right side. If you're a raja yogi it'll be between the
eyes. When I did my concentrating it wasn't on any
location; it was on wanting to have the answer.
Concentrate on seeking the answer.
Q: I haven't thought in terms of answers. I just thought in
terms of getting there, that's all.
Lester: You see, anything in life that you wanted with
intensity you always got. This goes for everyone. It's the
same with the path. But it's the unconscious conviction
that our joys lie in the world that keeps us away from
- 32 -
getting the answer.
Q: It sounds so easy the way you say it.
Lester: The thing that determines the ease is the
intensity of your desire for the answer. That's the crux of
the whole thing.
***
This Session was recorded at Self Haven. February,
1967
- 33 -
----------
セッション11 - 探究を備えた瞑想..........31 - 最終自由の鍵 (究極の自由への鍵)
SESSION 11
MEDITATION WITH QUEST
The prime purpose of meditation is to quiet the mind.
When we hold one thought with interest, as we hold it,
other thoughts keep dropping away. Thoughts of the
day,-what he did to me, what she did, what I should
have done, etc., all these thoughts are active on a
subconscious level. As we hold to one thought, these
subconscious thoughts quiet; they become still. They
drop into the background, and that quiets the mind.
Now, the most important thing in quieting the mind is
interest. When you are very interested in something,
you'll override all other thoughts. Likewise, if, with
intense interest, you want to know: What am I? What is
this world? What is my relationship to it? If there's a real
burning desire to get the answer, then all other thoughts
drop away and the mind becomes extremely
concentrated. Then the answer shows itself. It comes
from within. The answer is there all the time. The
quieting of the thoughts allows us to see it, to see the
answer that was there all the time, there in the realm of
Knowingness, the Self.
The starting point should be a strong desire for the
answer. When that desire is strong we get the answer.
That's why man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
Extreme adversity causes in us a desire to get out of it
with such intensity that we concentrate our mind and
discover the answer.
When I started my quest I thought “thinking” would give
me the answers. I had a mind that was as active as any
mind could be. But I was at the end of the line. I had had
a second heart attack and they told me I was finished,
that I had only a short time to live, and so I had to have
the answers. And even though my mind was far more
active than the great majority of minds, the intensity of
the desire for the answers caused me to hold to one
question at a time, obliterating all else. This
concentration did it!
I started seeking with no knowledge of metaphysics, no
knowledge of the way. In fact 1 was anti all religion and
all metaphysics; I thought it was nonsense, for the weakminded, for people who believed in fairy tales.
But it was only because of the intensity of the desire to
get the answers, I had to have the answers, that they
began to come, and they came relatively quickly. Over a
period of three month’s time I went from an extreme
materialist to the opposite extreme: the material is
nothingness and the spiritual is the All.
The wish to get the answer was so strong, that in spite
of my mind being one of the noisiest of minds, the
answers began to come. I automatically fell into things (I
knew no words for them) like samadhi. I would
concentrate on a question with such intensity that I
would lose awareness of the world, lose awareness of
this body, and then I would be aware of just a pure
thought, the thought itself would be the only thing
existing in this universe. That's absorption when the
thinker and the thought become one. One loses
consciousness of everything but that one thought. That's
a very concentrated state of mind and the answer is
always discovered right there.
I started with “What is happiness? What is life? What do
I want? How do I get happiness?” I discovered that
happiness depended upon my capacity to love. At first I
thought it was in being loved. I reviewed my life and saw
that I was very much loved
by my family and friends and yet I was not happy. I saw
that was not it. Continuing, I realized that it was my
capacity to love that gave me happiness.
The next question was “What is intelligence?” I persisted
until Ah! I saw it! There is only one intelligence in the
universe and we all have a direct line to it.
Then I worked on responsibility and discovered that I
was responsible for everything that happens or
happened to me. Creation was something I created!
Finally, I held the question “What am I?” until the answer
presented itself.
And this went on and in a matter of three month’s time I
believe I saw the entire picture, went all the way, only
because of the concentrated approach. I knew nothing
about the subject; I knew nothing about the direction, the
way, the path, but I wanted to know: “What am I? What
is this world? What's my relationship to it?”
You discover that the whole world is nothing but you,
that there never was anything but you all along, because
there's only One and you are It! But that isn't the final
state. You come out of it and there's still a certain
amount of mind left. So you go back into the meditative
quest until there is no more mind controlling you. When
you've eliminated all the habits of thought, all the
tendencies of mind, you are free; then you can use your
mind and you are the master and director of it. It no
longer determines you, you determine it.
At present we are over 90% of the time controlled by the
unconscious mind.
Q: That's the conscious and unconscious mind both?
Lester: Well, the conscious mind is easily controlled.
The subconscious is not because it is not easily seen.
It's a mechanism we set up of not looking at our
thoughts. of making them operate automatically. We did
it to our entire body; it's all automatic now. And then we
did it to all thoughts but the thought we're interested in at
the moment.
Q: Why is it that we did it to all thoughts except the one
we're interested in at the moment?
Lester: Because we don't want the thoughts in the first
place. so we push them away to the background. We
are happiest when there are no thoughts. Sometimes,
when you work with your hands, you’re very happy,
right? Why? The thoughts are quiet.
Q: Then your mind is quieted at that time, or is it operating on the subconscious level?
Lester: Well, consciously and even subconsciously it's
quieter. We really don’t want thoughts. Thoughts are the
things that make us unhappy; even the happy thoughts
make us unhappy because while we are enjoying
something, we're concerned about the possibility of
maintaining this pleasure which we know is not going to
last. The thought of the pleasure at the same time
evokes the thought that it's not going to last. Even
thoughts of happiness are limited. The really happy state
is the no-thought state; it's the state of Knowingness and
is beyond thought.
We started with the subject of meditation. Meditation
does seem to be a question in many people's minds
who have meditated for years and years. The best type
- 31 -
of meditation is with question. When you just drop into a
nice quiet state without question, you get a good feeling
but no progress of getting the Knowledge.
Q: There isn't any progress when you're just quiet?
Lester: There is in that you're moving toward the quiet
state. And the quiet state is a better state than the noisy
state. In that sense it's a step forward. But the only
problem we have now is called ignorance. We're
ignorant of the fact that we are infinite. To get rid of
ignorance we need the Knowledge of our infinity. To get
the Knowledge we have to enquire. So when we go into
meditation and just get peacefully quiet, that's good, -but
don't stop there, then get the answers. It's necessary to
get quiet to get the answers. Only the answer to “What
am I?” gets us to the top. That is easy to see, isn't it? So
if we want to take the -quickest way, we start with the
question that we finally have to answer: “What am I?”
I want to relate this to meditation. For more rapid growth
meditation should be with question. Here's where the
jnanis get the advantage over the bhaktas. Surrender
and devotion throw us into nice feelings and they're
good: But a jnani goes further; he says, “All right, don't
stop there, get the answer.” It's only when we fully know
who and what we are that we're at the end of the road.
So the fastest and best way to meditate is to pose a
question, get quiet and stay quiet until the answer shows
itself. Then go to the next one until all the answers are
there.
Q: If we find we aren't making much progress, could we
pose the question “What's holding me up?”
Lester: Sure, you should. It's a good one.
Q: You know I think you had it easier because you didn't
have a lot of preconceived ideas.
Lester: You're right. I was very lucky that I knew nothing
because intellectual knowledge about the subject is an
obstacle. The ego substitutes the intellectual knowledge
for the real experiencing of it. I was very, very fortunate
not to have had any knowledge of it.
Q: You also didn't realize that it's as difficult as most
people think it is.
Lester: Yes. However, knowing what you're telling me
helps one let go of that obstacle of intellectual
knowledge. I prod you in this direction, don It I? I say:
“Don't believe anything. Start from scratch. Build up your
knowledge on the solid foundation of proof, step by
step.” Everyone must do this.
Q: You can't take someone else's experience?
Lester: Right, you would be working on hearsay, on
what they have said, and the only useful thing is that
which you experience. I relate it to driving a car. If I say I
know how to drive a car after reading a book that directs
you to turn the key on, start the motor, shift into drive
and step on the gas, do I know how to drive a car? No,
not until I experience it can I drive a car. It's the same
thing on the path; we must experience everything.
We must, of course, adopt the attitude that what the
Great Ones say is so, that they have experienced it.
However, you must check it out and prove it for yourself.
And the basic Truth is that there’s only one Reality;
there's only one absolute Truth, and that is that this
whole world or universe is nothing but God, but better
than that, is nothing but my very own Self. God could be
far away; He could be miles and miles away in cosmic
space, but my very own Self is right here, is something I
know about, is something I can perceive, it is my very
own Self! So, using Self as God is far more practical
than putting Him out there, putting Him apart from us.
But each one must start from the bottom and prove this
whole thing for himself. As the proofs come, the more
they come the more we accept until we experience the
whole thing.
You still want to hear more on meditation?
Group: Yes.
Lester: Every aid should be a means of quieting the
mind. If meditation is difficult we can prepare the way by
chanting. Chanting puts our minds on the meaning of
the chant itself and the thoughts of the day drop away
and that quiets the mind. Exercising the body, doing
certain asanas, etc., do the same thing. Anything that
helps is good whatever it is. The basic thing is to quiet
the mind. Being loving and good makes the mind
quieter.
The mind is the only thing that keeps us from seeing our
Infinity. The mind is nothing but a collection of thoughts
of limitation. And in meditation we try to quiet that mind
so we can see this infinite Being that we are.
Meditation should never be passive. We should never
try to force the mind to go blank. Meditation should
always be with question for the best results.
The more we practice meditation the easier it is to do.
To get the real deep insights requires a momentum.
When meditation gets to be more enjoyable than things
of the world, then we go at it with enthusiasm and desire
for it. And then we just can't wait until we get back to it.
When we get that momentum going, the mind gets
quieter and quieter until this infinite Self is self obvious
and just glares at us and we laugh. Now maybe with all
this talk on meditation, we ought to try it, O. K.?
Q: Just one question, does concentrating on your hands
help to get your mind quiet? It seems to me.
Lester: If it helps, it's good.
Q: It's not harmful then?
Lester: Oh no. There are several centers one may
concentrate on. A good place is up here, between the
eyebrows. Concentrating here takes your mind off other
parts of the body. It is the center for the third eye, the
astral eye, the spiritual eye. It pulls us away from the
lower centers of the body when we come up here. Some
prefer the heart center. But anything that helps, helps!
Q: I used to concentrate between the eyes but now
when I do enquiry, I let the “I” sink down to the heart.
Lester: The heart is a good place because it is the center of feeling, and feeling is closer to the Self than
thought. It depends on your background. If you're a
vichara jnani, it'll be the heart, but not on the left side, on
the right side. If you're a raja yogi it'll be between the
eyes. When I did my concentrating it wasn't on any
location; it was on wanting to have the answer.
Concentrate on seeking the answer.
Q: I haven't thought in terms of answers. I just thought in
terms of getting there, that's all.
Lester: You see, anything in life that you wanted with
intensity you always got. This goes for everyone. It's the
same with the path. But it's the unconscious conviction
that our joys lie in the world that keeps us away from
- 32 -
getting the answer.
Q: It sounds so easy the way you say it.
Lester: The thing that determines the ease is the
intensity of your desire for the answer. That's the crux of
the whole thing.
***
This Session was recorded at Self Haven. February,
1967
- 33 -
----------
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